For the last decade, the FSA, and latterly its reincarnation as the FCA, have lambasted pension providers and the financial advisers that recommend their products. The FCA have criticised their work and insinuated that the IFAs and providers are ripping consumers off and need huge amounts of regulation to prevent them from essentially robbing the consumers.

One has to feel sorry for Martin Wheatley, CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority, as he struggles to find a proper path out of the morass into which the regulator was led under the previous incumbent. Sadly, a change of one letter in the name from the FSA to the […]

I have written frequently on the many risks to businesses due to their reliance on spreadsheets for calculations. The lack of auditability of changes made to spreadsheets and subsequently, the difficulty in tracing errors mean that the risks they pose in highly regulated complex financial environments are huge. So I […]

Since the Retail Distribution Review was first mooted, voices in the industry have been pointing out its primary flaw; the effect of the regulation is to put advice on financial matters out of the reach of the majority of the population, who could not possibly afford the advice they needed. […]

Time is slipping past. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is heading for abolition and with it the birth of the new regulatory system is approaching, with two separate authorities – the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), which will regulate the banking and investment markets, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which […]

This article was originally commissioned and published in April 2012 for Investment Life & Pensions Moneyfacts publication. It is written by Tom Murray, Head of Product Strategy at Exaxe. The Financial Services Authority is still struggling to get the Simplified Advice model out into the market. It is hardly surprising, […]

When a magician performs, people struggle to spot the actual trick. They know there is one and they are desperately trying to avoid being misdirected by the magician into looking in the wrong place while he completes the manoeuvre to produce the illusion. Looking at the way financial journalists are […]

The publication yesterday by the European Commission of the latest draft of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (Mifid II) has only served to increase the confusion around the distribution of investment products in the UK. It appears that the Commission is determined to ban commission payments for investment […]

Thank you, FSA! Another policy statement from the FSA drops on the mat. And guess what – it’s about the retail distribution review. The FSA HQ in Canary Wharf must by now be over 80% dedicated to producing these massive tomes. Like the three-volume-novel so popular in Victorian times, they follow […]

Saturday’s report from the Treasury Select Committee (TCS) on the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) is out and their main conclusion is that the Financial Services Authority are on the right track with RDR with one major exception – the demand that all IFAs hold level 4 qualifications after the 31st […]

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